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Colorado flooding: Boulder County residents assess damage after storm

Jessica Cruz came all the way from Fort Collins to help clean out the basement of her parents' neighbors Jim and Mary Ellen Briscoe on Widgeon Lane in Longmont, CO on September 14, 2013. Folks are beginning the long and arduous task of assessing damage and cleaning up from what the flood left behind (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

BOULDER — Renee Williams awoke Friday believing that the house she and her husband moved into two weeks ago had survived the Boulder floods.

Then she started hearing a strange gurgling sound in her toilet. Her tub filled up and overflowed. Her toilet overflowed. "It kept coming and kept coming and kept coming," she said.

The water coming out of their sewer line flooded their kitchen and their hardwood floors. When she ran into the street in tears, neighbors came to help, grabbing a tarp to funnel the water out, shutting off their water, getting buckets to scoop up the water pouring out of the bathroom.

Her family didn't get any help from the city, however.

Talvin DeWitt, 9, left and Bodin Bichon, 8, wade through the water surrounding their neighbor's house on Widgeon Lane in Longmont, CO on September 14, 2013. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

"I called 911. 911 says they can't do anything about it," she said. "I talked to sewer people, they said, oh yeah, as long as there's water coming up from the manhole, there's nothing we can do."

Boulder authorities said at an afternoon press conference that they were not aware of sewage backups in the city.

But Williams, an assistant school principal with two small children, said there is no doubt about what she and five of her neighbors in the Table Mesa neighborhood are seeing flowing from their bathrooms, filling their basements and splashing down their street.

"All the stuff you can imagine going through a sewer, we're seeing it in our home," said Williams, who lives at the corner of Ithaca Drive and Table Mesa Drive.

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At one point, she said, her husband put his full 190 pounds on the toilet, holding back a gusher. "If you could imagine a geyser coming out of your toilet, with sewage," she said.

"This is a health and safety hazard. My husband has been knee-deep in raw sewage for two days," she said. "Our kids have been exposed to raw sewage."

On the street, "kids are just splashing around, it's raw sewage," she said.

Cosmo Ungaro helps clean out the basement of homeowners Jim and Mary Ellen Briscoe on Widgeon Lane who's basement was inundated with water in Longmont, CO on September 14, 2013. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

Elsewhere in Boulder, on a dry day with clouds darkening to the west, the city seemed a mix of cleanup, damage assessment and endeavors more in keeping with its outdoorsy profile.

Drivers were being turned away on the western end of Colorado 119 at the mouth of Boulder Canyon. Nearby, the parking lot for Settlers Park was filling up with people hoping for a hike in the foothills.

"I thought I'd head up to Wyoming for a hike," said a recent Ohio transplant, who gave his first name as Beal. But the roads were closed.

Further north, residents forced to evacuate their homes were being allowed through a roadblock on Mapleton Avenue. Police officers still turned visitors or the merely curious away. A thin stream of silty water ran east down Kalmia Avenue, which was lined with vans, trucks and septic clean-up company vehicles.

"I don't even have a proper mop," said a resident standing in his garage who'd begun tossing out water-logged carpet. "I have a dust mop."

The city was urging customers to use water conservatively until the Boulder Reservoir water treatment facility was operational again. Boulder residents were relying on the city's other plant, the Betasso treatment facility, but had no backup.

City officials were also assessing the capabilities of its wastewater treatment plant after an analysis determined that wastewater arriving at the plant indicates there are system failures somewhere.

More than 200 people remained unaccounted for in Boulder County on Saturday evening — meaning they had not checked in with friends or family but were not necessarily in harm's way. Local and federal teams continued evacuation and search and rescue efforts throughout the day. The historic flooding has killed three people in the county.

Evacuation orders were lifted for the western part of the city near Boulder Canyon about 2 p.m., but residents were warned more rain could require further evacuations.

The National Guard had evacuated about 150 people out of Jamestown by helicopter and trucks continued to bring people out of Lyons, according to the Boulder Daily Camera. Both towns were cut off from help by the floodwaters.

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